When I appeared on the Down by Lawcast I supposedly said something along the lines of the cognitive deficiency that makes people score a 155 on the LSAT is the same deficiency that makes you view that 155 as a sign that law school is the right place for you. Honestly, I don’t remember exactly what I said because I was a couple drinks in and don’t listen to other shows when I’m on them. I have to listen to myself all day long anyways, why make it worse for me? If wouldn’t even listen to my own show if I didn’t have to the audio editing.

Well, apparently a few people took offense to that. Guess where they fell on the LSAT curve. If you were one of those people, here’s some math (ah! oh no! numbers is hard!) for you to consider:

The median score for the LSAT is around 151. So, let’s assume you take the LSAT, get a 158, see that you’re at about 77th percentile, and figure that’s pretty decent, you’ve got 17 percentile points between you and average.

Except then something weird happens between getting your score and going to law school, causing the median score to jump way up. Actually, two weird things.

First, some people won’t enroll in law school, and the people who don’t enroll are more likely to be on the low end of the spectrum than the high end. If everyone who got a 140 or lower didn’t enroll anywhere, the median score would go from 151 to 153, and your 77th percentile drops down to 73rd.

Now here’s the second strange thing that happens. Assume 100 people take the LSAT, 1 person gets a 127 or less, and 1 person gets a 172 or higher (those two numbers are the top and bottom 1%). The LSAT is offered four times a year, so at the end of a year, you’d expect 4 people with 172+ and 4 people with 127- right? If you said yes, you probably sucked on the LSAT.

At the end of the year, 4 people will have 172+, but only 1 or 2 people will have a 127-. Why? Because low scoring test takers are more likely to retake the exam. People who do well stop taking it.

How does this affect you? It means the part of the curve below you consists of a lot of clones, and they’re artificially propping you up. They’ll stop propping you up in law school and in real life, where they go back to only counting once.

Of course, some people with good scores won’t go to law school (maybe they’ll become doctors instead), and some people with high scores will retake the exam (because they want top 5, not just top 14). But, in general, people with lower scores are less likely to enroll, and more likely to retake the LSAT.

The LSAT is taken about 150,000 times a year, but law schools enroll only around 45,000 1Ls. Your 77th percentile that looked so hot before isn’t just dropping down to 73rd, but probably closer to 50th. If you started at the 50th percentile, you’re not safely in the bottom third.

So now, when you get your 158 on the LSAT, should you still be taking that as a sign you should go to law school? Probably not.

Of course, the LSAT pretty much only tests logical reasoning and reading comprehension, and if you’re not good at those skills, you’re not going to understand any of this, and you’re probably not going to understand why it’s a bad idea for you to go law school in the first place. After all, someone has to feed law tier four law school deans. If not you, then who?

Those of you familiar with the podosphere know that it’s pretty much impossible to have a podcast that doesn’t involve me in someway. I’ve appeared on Here’s What to Think with the Philadelphia Lawyer, Doc Rob, and Donika, hardly a week goes by that Attention Crash Radio doesn’t talk about me, and NPR is considering bringing me on for A Prairie Home Companion when Garrison Keillor finally kicks it.

So, it should come as little surprise to you that yours truly was a guest on the Down By Lawcast, the internet’s second best legal humor podcast. Go check it out and learn what many of us know all ready: washing dishes does not prepare you for a job as a prep cook.

Uh…yeah, so first an apology. This week’s episode is a bit on the short side. We talked about the Yale anti-zombie policy, but the content was pretty unusable, even by our low standards, and we were going to talk about the guy who claimed the cocaine police found shoved up his ass wasn’t his, but the pot was, but instead just discussed whether we had talked about that already.

But, we do have a fun new segment to keep you entertained/annoyed until our next episode, a legal puzzler, because regular brain teasers just aren’t uninteresting enough!

Can anyone seriously argue that intellectually property law should not be rewritten to allow someone, anyone, to get a trademark or a patent and then file an injunction to stop Trey Burton from doing that ever again?

Also, for the men of average sexual taste perverts out there, here’s a map of worldwide ages of consent:

And of course, if you like our show, you’ll probably hate this other one, but either way, check out the NKOTBs, Down By Lawcast.

The Juris Doctors were created by law schools.
They were laid off.
They devolved.
They look and feel human.
Some are programmed to think they are human.
There are many copies.
And they don't have a plan.